I have to confess that I didn’t believe in coincidences until I start working at this post. I know that there are more than 7 billion people on Earth and every second something is going on and all the coincidences can be calculated according to the theory of probability, but in spite of that these stories are still mysterious and fascinating. All of these stories have been confirmed as true.

1. Bulgarian thief

This happened in Sofia, Bulgaria. Thief Milko Stoyanov robbed a flat and put his ‘trophies’ into a rucksack. To make the things faster he decided to get away using a nearby drainpipe. There was a calm street below where no one could see him. When Milko was on the second floor, he heard the police whistles, released his hold of the pipe and fell down. At exactly that same moment, a random guy happened to be walking down the same street, and Milko fell directly on top of him. The policemen arrested Milko, but they were very surprised to find that the passerby was no other than another wanted thief. His name was also Milko Stoyanov.

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2. Anthony Hopkins and the novel

Before the filming of ‘The Girl from Petrovka’, Anthony Hopkins wanted to read the novel on which the movie was based, but he couldn’t find the book. The disappointed actor was headed home and spotted the forgotten book at the subway station. As you can guess, it was the novel he was looking for, with notes written in the margins. Later Hopkins made acquaintance with George Feifer, the man who wrote the novel. Feifer told Hopkins that he had given the book with notes to the director of the movie, but the director later lost it while riding on the subway.

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3. Air balloon

This happened in 1965. Scottish villagers were watching the screen version of the novel ‘Around the World in Eighty Days.’ When the movie characters were boarding into the basket of the hot air balloon and cutting the ropes, the viewers heard a strange crack. The villagers dispersed in panic. The sound was a real air balloon that fell on the roof of the cinema. The hot air balloon was even the same model as the one in the movie! Guess it can be called the first 3D effect.

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4. Falling baby

This happened in the 1930s in Detroit. Joseph Figlock was walking home when suddenly an infant fell down on his head from the window of a building. Neither were hurt. It turned out that a young and careless mother forgot to close the window and her curious baby climbed over the edge, but thankfully he was saved. Here’s the strange part: one year later Joseph was walking down the street and the same baby fell on his head. Once again, both were unharmed. It was a double miracle. We don’t know what happened the year after that, but we hope that kid lived to a very old age.

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5. ‘Titan’ and ‘Titanic’

This is a very famous coincidence. In 1898 the short novel ‘Futility’ by Morgan Robertson was published. His story features the giant cruise ship ‘Titan’ that sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. Almost all the details from the novel match the story of the Titanic, which sank over ten years later. Both liners were deemed to be unsinkable. There were many celebrities on board the ‘Titan’ and ‘Titanic’. These mysterious coincidences were discovered after the real-life disaster. Robertson wasn’t a must-read writer of his time, but after ‘Titanic’ sank to the bottom of the ocean in 1912, his novel was republished.

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6. Charles Coughlin and his coffin

Famous actor Charles Coughlin died in 1899. He was born in Canada, but he was buried in Galveston, Texas, where he was on tour. A year later this town was battered by the ultimate hurricane. It destroyed several streets and the cemetery where Coughlin was buried. The air-tight coffin floated in the Atlantic for nine years until the tide finally washed it up on the coast of Prince Edward Island, just in front of the house where Coughlin was born.

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7. King and his lookalike

Italian king Umberto I visited a restaurant in Monza to have a dinner. The owner of the restaurant came to take the order himself. Suddenly the king realized that the owner was the exact copy of him: the same face and figure. They fell into conversation and found out that they were born on the same day (March 11, 1844) in the same town. Both were married to women named Margarita. Strange, right? The coincidences didn’t stop there. In 1900 the owner of the restaurant was shot by accident. The king, who liked his restaurant, arrived to pay respects to his friend, but the terrorist jumped out of the crowd and shot Umberto I as well.

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8. Poker family

In 1858 poker player Robert Fallon was shot dead by his opponent, who thought that Fallon was cheating. The dead player had won 600 dollars and everyone thought that someone should take his place to continue the game, but everyone present refused, saying that it was unlucky. So they asked a guy who was passing by. He agreed and got Fallon’s 600 dollars. When police arrived to investigate the shooting, they were still playing and the newcomer had won 2200 dollars. After the inquiry, the court ordered the player to give the initial 600 dollars to Fallon’s family. It turned out that the guy who had taken Fallon’s seat was actually his son, who hadn’t seen his father for seven years.

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9. Joseph Aigner and the mysterious monk

Famous Austrian portrait painter Joseph Aigner tried to commit the suicide several times. First he wanted to hang himself at the age of 18, but a Capuchin monk suddenly appeared and got him out of the loop. He tried a second time at the age of 22 and the same monk saved his life again. Ten years after the second attempt he was sentenced to death as a result of his political activity, but the same monk helped to mitigate the sentence. At the age of 68 Aigner finally shot himself. The same mysterious monk read the eulogy at his burial service.

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10. The bullet and the tree

In 1883 Henry Zigland broke up with his sweetheart. The girl was so heart-stricken that she committed suicide. Her brother wanted to take revenge, so he shot at Zigland and, thinking he murdered him, killed himself. But Zigland survived. The bullet wounded his check and got stuck in the tree. Some years later Zigland decided to cut down the ill-fated tree, but it was too big, so he blasted it with dynamite. The blast wave popped the bullet out of the trunk and it shot directly in Zigland’s head.

If you still don’t believe in coincidence, I have no more arguments to convince you. Maybe you’ve been a part of strange coincidences by yourself. Share your own strange stories below.